The invention relates generally to intralumenal grafts and, more particularly, to prosthetic grafts to assist in the repair of diseased or damaged sections of a vessel.
A common health problem is diseased or damaged blood vessels which may either weaken and rupture or which become partially or wholly occluded by atherosclerotic plaque. Substantial injury and often death can result from the hemorrhaging at the site of a ruptured blood vessel. Strokes, for example, are frequently caused by the rupture of either intracerebral or extracerebral arteries wherein paralysis or death is caused by hemorrhaging into the brain or its surrounding structures. Atherosclerotic lesions are the leading cause of coronary heart disease. The repair of coronary arteries with atherosclerotic lesions is the purpose of coronary artery bypass surgery.
Conventional methods for repairing diseased and occluded sections of arteries includes invasive surgery to expose to a surgeon the section of the artery to be repaired. The section having the lesion is resected and replaced by a section of artery removed from a remote site of the patient's vascular system or by a prosthetic tubular graft. This prior art technique is traumatic to the patient, requires major surgery, and frequently may be difficult to perform because of the frequently very poor health of the patient. A second prior art technique utilizes a balloon catheter which is inserted into the artery and fed up to the site of the atherosclerotic lesion. The balloon is expanded and the atherosclerotic plaque compressed thereby increasing the size of the artery. Balloon catheter repairs are not always effective and even successfully opened arteries will require additional treatment within a period ranging from months to three years.